Letter to the Editor: Merely Claims

Anthony Intiso has made claims, in both the Mount Shasta Herald article and on the website for Jefferson Republic: www.jeffersonrepublic.org/home.html that there is an authority granted in the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution, for the citizens to form a new form of government called a republic, within a county.

Comment

By Kirtland BrownMount Shasta

Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

By Kirtland BrownMount Shasta

Posted May. 27, 2014 at 4:00 PM

By Kirtland BrownMount Shasta
Posted May. 27, 2014 at 4:00 PM

Anthony Intiso has made claims, in both the Mount Shasta Herald article and on the website for Jefferson Republic: www.jeffersonrepublic.org/home.html that there is an authority granted in the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution, for the citizens to form a new form of government called a republic, within a county. After looking up Amendment IX of the U.S. Constitution and Articles II and IX of the California Constitution that he cites, I find absolutely nothing there to substantiate these claims. The only reference I could find to an authority to form a government under the state government, is in the California Constitution which does state in article IX Sec 4 “The Legislature (of California) shall establish a system of County Governments which shall be uniform throughout the State, …”

Since the Legislature already has formed a Siskiyou County government and the Jefferson Republic advocates contend they also have a right to form a government with it’s own law enforcement, how do they propose that having two different governments within the borders of Siskiyou County is going to play out.

Anthony Intiso, et al, also goes on to make other claims on the constitutionality of the laws governing us, inferring that the U.S. Supreme Court no longer has the authority, as described in Article III of the U.S. Constitution, to determine constitutionality of our laws, who do they think has that authority, now?

This measure appears to be based on some imaginative, creative interpretation of the U.S. and California Constitutions that only the advocates of the Jefferson Republic can find.

If there is actually a constitutional basis and precedent for this measure, can anyone actually reveal, specifically the sources and language, the advocates of this measure claim to exist?

They are conjecturing their new imaginary form of representative democracy, which they have failed to fully define and describe, will be better, than our existing form of representative democracy.

I think Winston Churchill’s observation sums up the frustrations people have with a Democratic Government, when things don’t go their way, and help keeps Democracy in perspective. “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” (from a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947)

The passage of Measure C will only result in wasted time and money for the county.